The Lies We Tell

2 - "I'm okay"

The remaining heat of summer barreled down on the boys as they ran their hearts out, exerting all their strength into practice. With the first game right around the corner, tension was slowly rising and everyone could feel it.

It had been a few days since the revelation of Colby being team captain and although Alex had thought it would end his career, almost nothing changed. They tried their best to ignore each other and when they did happen to catch each other's eye, a cold shoulder was given.

Colby had been keeping a silent watch on Alex, making sure he didn't start anything, and he ended up pleasantly surprised. Alex worked hard, always pushing himself to do better, however Colby still didn't like the younger boy and it definitely showed. After he saw Alex being so verbally aggressive towards that girl, it was hard to think of him as anything besides a creep.

Alex strictly ignored Colby, though. He spent time with Dayton and some others while purposely trying to avoid the other boy at all costs while his new position remained the heart of his attention. During the training camp over the summer, Alex was switched from center mid to right mid, from a position with lots of action to one that simply facilitated the movement of the ball between defense and offense, only sometimes having the opportunity to shoot on goal. 

Initially he was furious, but after some time it simmered into a mild irritation. But by god if he wasn't going to be the best damn right mid the team had.

The boys were kicking up turf, scrimmaging against each other to practice a game-like scenario. Kick after kick, pass after pass, each team remained strong, fighting for their teammate and giving their all. They pushed to the brinks of the ability so they could win for winnings sake.

And the losing team had to clean the locker room.

Alex enjoyed a good scrimmage as long as each side understood that there would be no bad blood.

The ball was in his team's possession until it was stolen by a defender on the other team. Passed to Colby, he started taking it down the field until he was stopped by another player.

Alex stood in front of him, ready to fight for the ball, so Colby decided to pass it to Felix who was open a ways behind Alex.

Gathering some speed, he kicked the ball hard, attempting to spin it so it could swerve around Alex, but it didn't work.

Maybe it was the wind, maybe it was the placement of his foot, but Colby kicked the ball directly into Alex's chest, making him fall back and knocking the wind out of him.

Alex stared at the sky as he tried to get air back into his lungs.

Teammates rushed over to see if they could help, and Dayton kneeled down next to his friend.

"Hey, you alright? That hit you pretty hard." One hand was placed behind Alex's back as Dayton helped prop him up.

Colby stood off to the side, not worried about the health of the other player. Playing soccer meant getting the wind knocked out of you from time to time, and Colby felt like Alex was overreacting.

With crossed arms and rolled eyes, Colby made his way over to simply show support, completely devoid of any remorse.

Before he could speak, however, Alex pushed himself up from the ground and shoulder checked the other boy, walking over to his bag to grab a drink of water.

"Hey," Dayton said as he caught up with him, "what was that about?"

"He's a fucking prick."

"Uhh.." Dayton stood awkwardly and glanced back over at Colby, "why do you say that? I'm pretty sure it was an accident."